1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to triple-axle motorhomes with an integrated shell, a front steering axle, an anterior rear axle, and posterior rear axle. The motorhome with onboard touring car, elevator, and crew cabin is disclosed with two levels, an upper lever and a lower level.
The upper level is livable over its entire area, divided into two portions served by: a rear section comprising a staircase located rearward from the posterior rear axle of the vehicle; and, a front section, comprising an inside elevator with a car located forward of the anterior rear axle and a staircase located forward of the front steering axle of the vehicle.
The lower level comprises a rear section, a front section, and a central section. The rear section comprises the engine-transmission assembly. The front section comprises the driving cab. The central section comprises: a receptacle which is large enough to accommodate a touring car positioned along the longitudinal axis of the motorhome but entering it via a ramp that is perpendicular to this axis.
2. Description of the Related Art
To this day, existing motorhomes do not take onboard any car, perpendicularly to their longitudinal axis; do not have any access staircase on the upper level, rearward of their rear axle; do not have any interior elevator going down to the ground; and are not provided with: an insulating integrated shell, or full shell, two distinct and functional accommodation areas, slide-outs directly above the car receptacle, or electrically retractable permanent beds, or a living room area that can be converted into a bedroom which is directly and independently accessible and closed off by rigid partitions.
The aforementioned characteristics have the following drawbacks:
Necessity of a chassis having a recess adapted to accommodate the car support platform and requiring either to take on board only a car of small height, of the cabriolet type, and therefore seating only two people, or to lift the motorhome by means of hoists to enable taking on board a four-passenger car corresponding to the housing capacity of such a vehicle (see patents DE 20 2004 012 073 U1 2004.11.11 and DE 102005 036 590 A1 2006.03.23);
A necessarily weakened chassis perpendicularly to the platform since presenting a continuity solution at this level;
Loading and unloading of the car forcing the latter to cross over the threshold of the platform;
The platform going vertically down to make ground contact to then be displaced horizontally a few millimeters from the latter implies that it must be perfectly planar and with no roughness or unevenness over the entire surface necessary to its displacement;
Car loading parallel to the axis of the motorhome implying that it must be very close to the latter for the maneuver, hence a guiding complication;
Necessity of loading it in a direction such that the driver can get in and out of the car, namely, on the side opposite the motorhome;
Loading and unloading the car can be done on one side of the motorhome only;
Accessing the upper level is difficult for elderly people or people with reduced mobility. Indeed, they have to go up a very high first step and a very steep staircase;
Impossibility for the people touring to have a crew, which means that at least one of them must have a license for driving heavy weight vehicles, and for driving a particularly cumbersome vehicle;
Obligation for them to carry out logistical and administrative tasks;
Impossibility of having slide-outs above the car receptacle because their maneuver mechanism is generally cumbersome;
No living room that can be instantaneously and automatically converted into a bedroom with always-made twin beds;
No room having the size of the vehicle, being directly and independently accessible and which can be entirely closed off by rigid partitions; and
Low chassis of the vehicle that is not integrated to the body and is therefore subject to bad weather and road debris.